If we build it, they will come...

Do you have a dream of a better world?  Well, build it, and it will happen.  Whether that saying originated from Field of Dreams or the story of Noah's Arc, Alex and I use it as our motto regularly, while we dream of a peaceful, sustainable future for all.  We always think, we (and I mean the big We, Alex, me, and all of Us) need to lead by example in our professional, personal and social lives, to create positive change in the world. 

Starting our journey into Dickinsons Reach trail to visit Bill

Since our last post, we went to visit someone who has made his entire life an example and inspiration in simple living.  He built it, and we came :)  Bill Coperthwaite, now 83 years old, lives in a yurt he and his friends built, using only hand tools.  He indeed lives very simply, heating with a wood stove (and he still cuts all his own firewood with hand powered tools as well), he lives at one with nature, in a very peaceful atmosphere (and he does all this without electricity, telephone, or running water). 

One of his life goals has been to encourage young and old to live a more simple, peaceful and sustainable lifestyle, and he has done that through example, but also through encouragement, and teaching of woodworking skills, yurt building, and dare I say anti-war and anti-oppression philosophies of conscious living and positive social change.  We need more people like Bill in this world...  If you haven't had a chance to read his book yet, it is a very simple, very powerful read, and we recommend it highly.  A Handmade Life.

As we returned inspired and ever grateful for Bill's generosity, we find ourselves ever more excited to transform the homestead into a place where social gathering, spiritual healing through nature, and food growing feels good for the heart :) that is how we feel anyway :)

Léo in a hollow cider apple tree

This week, we helped some good friends plant a cider orchard for future generations to enjoy, and karma brought us some help in return, through a couchsurfer who stopped in and gladly transplanted lots of tomato seedlings and opened our first strawberry bed, and our friends Andrew and Sarah helped to move the chickens over the future garden plot so they can clear away all the grass and weeds before we till.  We even got the horseradish and asparagus in the ground, some high bush blueberries, lots of donated compost and a few shovels of dirt already removed from the future pond area. Thanks Tim!

the greenhouse is now full!

The piles of brush are becoming wood chip for the trails

Our pruned apple trees are slowly blooming once again

Sarah and Suzie helping out with the chickens and the fire

Alex and Andrew moving the chickens to their new work area :)

This season is looking to be epic.  (Epic is my new favorite word)

To all of you out there, we want to know what you are doing to build a better world :)

Until next time, be well, 

looking past the mess at the future plans for the homestead

The landscape on the homestead currently looks more like a logging operation than a farm.  In a sense, that is what it has been, as we slowly clear away the Norway Maples that have taken over the orchard (those Norway Maples haunt me, I feel like they are mentioned in every single post!).

Ira and Ian visited from Montreal in March and helped a bit with the cutting

Piles like this one dot the property, we tried to burn one, but the wood is too green

It's sometimes hard to see past the mess, but we quickly use our imaginations to remember our dreams and plans we have for the homestead, and as you can see, we are far from troubled ;)! We just tell ourselves that the endless mountains of brush aren't clutter :) they are resources, materials that will be used for the various projects we have planed: trails, fences, lumber, sauna, outdoor shower... They will soon disappear as these projects come to life.  

Just yesterday, with the beautiful sunny weather, Alex and his friend John practiced some tree climbing techniques, to be able to begin pruning even the tallest of our apple trees, big and small.  They climbed our prized and magical crabapple, which we hope to turn into delicious homemade hard cider this fall.

We have been doing all this clearing to make room for the garden (which is already in full production indoors!), but also for our new trees which are set to arrive in May.  We will be diversifying our fruit trees with the addition of some cherries, plums, pawpaws and we'll add some protein with walnuts, hazelnut and butternut.

Getting ready to transition to the greenhouse

Tomatoes nice and warm next to the stove

Meanwhile indoors, our garden grows. In the cold winter months I got to reading The Seed Starter's Handbook by Nancy Bubel (great book, part of the collection of farming books gifted to us by the previous family who lived here), and in order of plantings, we now have seedlings of onions, tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, celery, kale, basil, cabbage, lettuce, leeks and potatoes either sprouting in the greenhouse or next to the woodstove or already growing and luscious under the grow-lamps.  For the rest of the vegetable varieties we plan to grow, I think I will simply wait to do direct planting.

One cool technique that Sabrina and I started doing last year: pre-soaking the seeds in water, it works!  It's like starting sprouts, and this way you give your seeds a headstart.

The temperature inside the greenhouse already gets up to 95F (35C) in April, when its sunny all day, luckily Alex planned for good ventilation!

One exciting plan that is currently under way is the relocalization of the chickens to their permanent home.  We also got to reading the Permaculture Garden book by Graham Bell and the Edible Forest Gardens Vol II book by Dave Jacke during the colder months, and we got the idea from both these books, to design a chicken moat around our largest vegetable garden plot. By creating a gated 4 foot wide corridor all around the garden, where the chickens can roam, our new garden 'guardians' will be ridding us of any potential weed seed or most insects trying to enter our coveted food pantry, all while foraging for their food. 

So far we have moved them into the summer coop on top of the knoll, have created their pen, complete with roosts and access to the compost pile, and this week the rolls of 150 feet of 6 foot tall chicken wire will arrive.  Currently, the chickens are busy eating away at all the weeds that grow where the garden will be :) Thank you chickens! More on this project later...

And I leave you with these photos of Léo, who is now 10 months old :) has four teeth, will soon be walking without the help of the table or chair, and does poo poo in the potty everyday! It's the little things in life... ;)

Seems crazy I know, but he is really regular ;)

If you like what you read, you can follow us by email, add us on google+ or share with us your stories, or your own blog about homesteading or sustainable living, we'd love to see what others are doing.

Until next time, be well

Making our own sugar ;)

This spring we decided to have a go at making maple syrup, which we hope will in future be our main source of sugar.

Last spring we didn't tap any trees, first because we didn't know which ones were Sugar Maples, and second we didn't have our wood stove yet.  This spring, we decided it was worth a shot after speaking to my 93 year old grandma who recalled that when she was young her father always tapped the tree in front of their house and put the sap over the wood stove in the house.  What a brilliant idea: make syrup, use the sap evaporation process as a humidifier at the same time, and save the energy cost on top of that, because the fire is going anyways to heat the house.  Just brilliant.

We had so much maple water flowing that we drank it just like that

So we decided to tap some trees. Apparently Norway Maples aren't very good at making decent syrup, so we had to learn to differentiate the bark of Norways from potential Sugar Maples (or Silver or Red, which look a lot alike in the winter).  Turns out its really easy to tell them apart, and most of our Maples are Norway Maples, bummer!  But we did find a few old Maples that would fit the bill of a potential Sugar (or Silver or Red), so I tapped them.
Yum!

 Our big production, slowly evaporating on top of the wood stove

Even with only two taps, and probably a few days into the maple season, we managed to make at least two liters of syrup, not bad.

The snow is all gone, and the taps are out now... such a special time of year: the announcement of the beginning of spring. The signal that life is returning to the plant world, that everything is waking up from a long and restful winter sleep.  I am so happy and thankful the result is so sweet :)

Be well.

Prepping the orchard: Wood, Air & Light!

After our November post about the orchard, here is an update of its progress. In the words of John Bunker all you need is new wood, air and sunlight, and the rest is up to you and your tree's individual personality and story.

Two weekends ago we had the very good fortune of hosting a MOFGA pruning workshop on our homestead, for very old apple trees.  John Bunker and Phil Norris were our instructors, about twenty people came, and it was a perfect day with warm sun rays and my very first sights of butterflies.

During this 4 hour course we learned about the best practices of pruning fruit trees (as opposed to pruning for powerlines or ornamentals who just need to look good), to maximize their fruit production, but also to bring back trees that have been left untended for quite sometime.

Being that our house was built circa 1840, we have some Old trees, and although they might look 'old' and dying, they are still kicking.  And it is possible to bring them back to interesting fruit production with a little help.

 

Our Russet before... sorry I don't have a better before picture

Our Russet being actively pruned :)

First, you want to assess the vigor of your tree, to determine whether or not it will do well with an intense makeover all at once, or if you could help it with some homemade braces under some branches to reduce the pressure of gravity on the main trunk, or even more important, whether or not the fruit is any good!  Have you tried it?  Lots of different apples can be used for different purposes -- fresh eating, sauce, baking, juice, cider, apple butter, animal feed, etc. -- but not all apples are worth all that work.  Especially if they are seedling trees (meaning it isn't a grafted apple variety but one that simply grew from a seed).  Seedling trees may be edible, but rarely delicious.  So the advice given to us was to first try the fruit of the seedling trees we have, and maybe if it's not all that interesting, to use the tree as a root stock to save, or simply multiply one of our other trees with a better fruit on it.

From what I understand, all apple cultivars we commonly know of by name are supposed to be genetically identical specimens to the original one.  That is because they are propagated through grafting or budding, grown from a twig of the original one, passed down from generation to generation.  That is the beauty of orcharding: even if your tree is old, and you think you might not be able to bring it back to life (because of a hollow trunk or a nasty wound) you can give it new life by grafting a piece of last year's new wood onto a new root stock, or fifty new root stocks!  Well that wasn't the focus of this specific workshop, but I am thankful for that option, as my dearest apple (that we have temporarily named the Ghost apple), is probably close to 150 years old and has a very hollow trunk and because of that, could, might, perhaps not survive that much longer (Gulp!).  For that reason Mr. Bunker saved quite a few scions (= new wood twigs) which he will transform into new grafted young and healthy Ghost apples for future generations to enjoy.

Alex learning the ropes on the ghost apple tree from Phil

The next thing you can think about when pruning, is pruning the other trees around your apples :) Do you have lots of Norway maples or other early pioneers or invasives slowly taking over your orchard?  Cut them back, and use them as lumber, firewood, woodchips, etc, and give more sun to your fruits!

Alex and Ian, cording a Norway Maple that we took down to make room for the Ghost Apple

 Then dead wood is the easiest next step.  Remove all the dead branches, to give you a better, more accurate idea of what you will want to keep.  Then begin to remove what are called the Water Sprouts, the vigorous vertical branches that shoot straight up. 

Apple trees will never have fruits on vertical wood, never.  You need to have horizontal growth (or also otherwise called weak wood) to have fruits.  So if you see some younger vibrant growth shooting straight up, it might be a good sign that your tree is still very much alive, but you can go ahead and cut it off (remember it might seem extreme, but its not all for not, as you can also then remove last years growth on that branch to make scions :)). 

Sabrina came down for the workshop, and Léo in her arms :)

After removing adjacent trees, dead wood and water sprouts (thus taking care in part of the wood and sunlight aspects), we still have to keep cutting to create AIR.  You don't want any of your branches to touch, intertwine, or 'choke' one another.  So just like at the hairdresser, you want to layer the tree, and the analogy of a Christmas tree shape was used a lot, even though, with these olds gals, it might have to take a less symmetrical shape :) Obviously you want to encourage growth closer to the ground so you don't have to climb so high to get your fruit, so keep that in mind when you select the branches you will keep. An old adage is you want to cut enough to be able to throw a cat through the tree!

All cuts should be made directly next to a joint to allow the tree to cover the wound with bark. The two types of pruning cuts, heading and thinning are used for different purposes, but about 98% of all cuts we were told should be thinning cuts (cuts at a branching joint and not somewhere along a branch).

And I guess lastly, take your time, whether you are pruning for the first time or if you are an experienced apple orchardist...  As you open up new sunlight areas your tree might be telling you a different story next year, so think of the future, and don't be afraid to be gentle, there is always next year, or the fall.  With these older trees, don't be afraid to take your time, do the pruning in seasons, wait to see if new growth appears right on the trunk (as it will when you cut some of the top, thereby freeing some sunlight).

I say this because there is a saying, ''When you think you are done pruning, keep pruning!''. 

If you know some important tips about pruning, old or young trees, if you have comments, questions or stories about how you prune your trees, we'd love to hear from you :)

Til next time, be well!